The Ne'er-Do-Well eBook

“Listen! I’ve shown you what I can
do in a few months. In a year you can be a great
success. That’s how big men are made; they
know the short-cuts. You are too inexperienced
yet to know what success and power mean, but you are
beginning to learn, and when you have learned you
will thank me for breaking up this foolish romance.
I don’t ask you to forget your manhood.
I ask nothing. I am content to wait. You
want to become a big man like your father. Well,
Runnels will be out of the way soon; Blakeley amounts
to nothing. You will be the Superintendent.”

“So! That’s not merely a rumor about
Blakeley? Runnels is fired, eh?”

“Yes.”

“If I choose not to give up Chiq—­Miss
Garavel, then what? It means the end of me here,
is that it?”

“If you ‘choose’! Why, my dear,
you have no choice whatever in the matter. It
is practically closed. You can do nothing—­although,
if you really intend to make trouble, I shall walk
inside when I leave and inform the old gentleman,
in which case he will probably send the girl home
at once, and take very good care to give you no further
opportunity. Ramon is only too anxious to marry
her. As to this being the end of you here, well,
I really don’t see how it could be otherwise.
No Kirk, it’s for you to decide whether you
wish to be shown the secret path up the mountain or
to scale the cliffs unaided. There are no conditions.
You merely mustn’t play the fool.”

“And if I don’t agree you will tell Mr.
Garavel that I’m going to make trouble?”
He mused aloud, watching her out of the corner of
his eye. She said nothing, so he went on cautiously,
sparring for time.

“Well, inasmuch as this seems to be a plain
business proposition, suppose I think it over.
When it comes time for our next dance, I’ll
say yes or no.”

“As you please.”

“Very well. The music has stopped; we’d
better go in.”

As they rose she laid her hand upon his arm and he
felt it tremble as she exclaimed:

“Believe me, Kirk, this isn’t at all easy
for me, but—­I can’t bear to lose.”

XXV

Checkmate!

Anthony had no partner for the eighth dance, and was
very glad of it, for he could not have carried off
the necessary small talk. As it was, he felt
that his excitement must be patent to those around
him. His mind was filled with tormenting doubts,
his chance for success seemed so infinitely small,
his plan so extravagantly impracticable, now that
the time had come!

As the music ceased and the dancers came pouring out
into the cool night air, Runnels approached with his
wife.

“Well, are you equal to it?” he asked.

Kirk nodded; he could not speak.

“Why, you look as cold as ice,” exclaimed
the woman, half-resentfully. “I’m
the only one who seems to feel it. I—­I’m
positively delirious. My partners look at me in
the strangest way, as if they thought I were liable
to become dangerous at any moment.”